


Journey

by unwintering



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Adventure, Angst, Family, Hurt/Comfort, In which I will pretend HNY doesn't exist and write my own plotline for sesshomaru's kids, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-13 07:27:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29024958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwintering/pseuds/unwintering
Summary: Following their mother's passing, Towa and Setsuna must leave behind their former home to follow a father they hardly know as part of their mother's dying wish
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21





	1. New Beginnings

"The forest feels different now. Do you think something's changed?

A pause. " ...it hasn't."

Mom. It's what they both think, sharing a knowing look, but neither of them dare say. For fourteen years she'd been the parent they'd known. The familiar whisper in the dead of night when one couldn't fall to sleep telling them the same story of unfamiliar faces, a jewel, a spider.

The boat they sit in suddenly careens dangerously from a flue of harsh wind. Despite the jolt they only steady themselves with a hand along the skiff, and their attentions were dragged skywards, seemingly the direction the wind had taken. A few white petals spun dizzily, slowly fell and plucked dimples along the surface of the river while they were carried down. Surprisingly with the turn of winter at the brims it hadn't been mordant, but abundant with familiarity; like a deep breath escaping a chest where you've rested your head. Warm, even. But it passed quickly; and the next breeze made up with a brutal biting.

He had returned without a word. The frosted grass didn't dare announce his approach. The girls stared in a mix of discomfort, trepidation and awe. While this had not been the first time they'd seen him so close, nor the first in so long, it was the first they'd seen him so many times and had still to accept would not vanish between a pillar of evening fogged trees for another span of weeks or months at a time. the face they'd recognize belonged to their father was not a face they knew, it was a face they hardly associated with the person in their mother's stories at all.

They shuffle inside the boat, moving to make room for him to step inside and position himself beside an oar without giving them much regard.

If the silence among them was at least a comfortable one, that would have been worth something. But it clung like a smoggy blanket, heavy and suffocating. At least to Towa, who sat watching her hands in her lap while the sister besides her seemed to take no issue crossing her arms and turning her head away from the man she'd never referred to as a father and allowed her resentment to skid off the tip of her nose. Towa glanced at her from the corner of her eye then quickly resumed to her hands, trying to keep herself from wringing them in nervousness. She didn't sneak a glance at the figure imposed across from her, though the triangle of his boots made their way into her periphery, for looking at him felt itself a wrongdoing of another caliber. She could not explain why she felt such a way, beyond the reason he felt as though he were a force of nature to not be tempered with and did not know him. Her mother had always spoken fondly.

Her words had never lined up with their version of him, though.

Towa.

Her head snapped up, not expecting the voice, and not until a full moment after she'd frozen wide - eyed did she process that she was staring directly at the golden ones of the man in front of her and that he had been the source of the voice. He didn't offer an explanation, and after another second went by his gaze shifted ahead towards the direction they were sculling. Her confusion at a second longer, brows twisting, peeling back down to her hands again.

And they were red.

She sighs, tucking them beneath her legs. She hadn't realized she'd buried so far into her thoughts she hadn't noticed her own actions and still felt disconcerted by the fact she still didn't feel like she'd gotten to the point of dissociating from her actions. Her frustrations were clear, and Setsuna could feel her tense by her shoulder even if she wasn't observing her from the corner of her sights. Sometimes the two were different enough she wondered if they were sisters, let alone twins, but still she allowed a bit of sympathy to go out although she made no attempt to comfort the other.

The boat came to a halt and Sesshomaru stood, starting up the path that'd lead to the girls' small house in the woods. Tossing a glance at each other once again first, the twins soon got on their feet and followed some distance behind.

The march wasn't a long one, if it felt it. Neither of the girls ever raised their heads from the ground. If they did they'd have been met with a cold breadth of shoulders, but looking back towa believed she could've found some reprieve in admiring the dead scenery, the specifically pale air and unnatural lukewarmth that signalled the oncoming of snow.

When they reached the house Sesshomaru maintained a distance from the door. In fact he walked in an arc around the front of it, to the next appointed direction they'd take, and said simply: "Only gather what you need."

That he had no intention of following them inside relieved the girls and they hurried in without asking why. Almost immediately Towa sank against the door and let herself slide until she was sitting. Setsuna, who was already shuffling her belongings across the table, stopped to give her a questioning brow.

"Think we can make it on our own?"

Setsuna looked more confused, and at that Towa gave a nervous laugh and rubbed her face. She might as well have sobbed. "I mean- mom taught us to fight. We can fend for ourselves, find a village or… or somewhere that's away from here. Or we can just stay here. Tell him we're not going. We've done this so long without him, we can keep going."

"You're backing out?"

"No, I just…"

She trailed off, one leg stretched out in front of her while the other was bent and she rested an arm on that knee. She'd been the one to convince Setsuna not to put up a fuss. Her sister's the one who originally argued they could do fine without him in the first place.

Mom's last wish. Towa sighed. She wanted to believe they could do fine on their own, but they'd both seen how the woods were unforgiving following their mother's death and hadn't waited to throw all manner of foe at them. Types of demons she'd never seen while their mother had been alive.

It felt terribly sick to her stomach.

She pushed herself back on her feet, gathered her sword, a change of clothes and…

A white feather hairpin sat at the corner of the nightstand by her mother's bed. A small washed out pearl gleaming sadly at the end of it. The pin should have been a pair and opening the drawer of the stand she found the second. "Setsuna, come here."

As soon as the girl was by her side she motioned for her to turn, fastening the pin to her ponytail. Setsuna turned back to find her fastening the second to her shirt, and decided not to comment on it. The rest of their belongings were gathered in silence, a melancholic one, but more comfortable than the one awaiting them outside. So they went unhurried, until they could no longer find a reason to linger inside the house.

They both expected to be greeted by the impact of slamming into a wall of cold air and that alone, but for a time they had lost count of Sesshomaru stood exactly where he'd been earlier and only acknowledged their presence with a glance before falling into step. And for what must have been for the hundred and eleventh time that day, the girls shared a look and promptly followed him.

Towa looked over her shoulder to look at the house again. She didn't know when she'd see the house she grew up in next or if ever, and while the past few days it had become a cage and a deathbed a sense of longing was quick to tug at her. And she snapped each of the strings, turned forwards with a new sense of courage that took Setsuna by surprised, and jogged up so she stood not far behind her father's side. "Where are we going?"

Setsuna watched, almost with a sense of pity for the way that Towa looked up at the man. She'd taken a new shape of hope but not one without an underlying desperation in it, and Setsuna counted the seconds waiting for the shatter.

"Your mother taught you to hunt."

They both stop. Towa's mouth open. Sesshomaru didn't offer them the chance to process further, not waiting a moment for them to regain their footing to continue in his direction. Returning her pace Towa shot Setsuna another glance before looking at her father and answered as if he'd asked a question and not made a statement. "She did-"

"That's where you're going."

* * *

The comfort she'd found in the weather earlier had smited her. Four hours had passed since tailing a deer to find no comfort curled by a rotting log. She hugged her hands against her chest, hoping for some semblance of warmth to come to them, so painfully stiff and numb she believed if she smashed them down on the wood her fingers would crack off cleanly and not spill blood.

Her eyes look up at the animal skinned over the fire. She knew it was a deer only because she had been there to see it killed, not even the one to bring it's end. Setsuna had been its undoing. Towa had shot the arrow to topple it and missed the first time, which had solicited the first of emotions to show from her father. A frown that'd been loud with unspoken disappointment. He said nothing but that had been enough to ignite the nerves Towa had barely come down from and procuring the deer had gone from a mundane task to a skittish entrance exam where she knew she'd already failed the first fifty questions. Left her fumbling and wanting to explain herself; she had no talent for a bow, and used it strictly to aid in hunting. Eventually she'd given up, worn out by nervousness and defeat was what at last allowed her to sneak up on the deer and angle a shot that proved enough to incapacitate it, but not quick enough in the task of killing it.

That part their mother had always done, if they needed to. Sesshomaru hadn't made a single attempt to help during the hunt, and she'd been foolish to think he might have stepped in then and she was close enough to asking when Setsuna had squared him a nasty look and taken her naginata cleanly into its heart.

Now it cooked entirely unrecognizable. They'd carried, skinned and cleaned it on their own as well. Started the fire and found a clean river for water. If not for the looming presence at their shoulder the day would have been ordinary. Towa could use the sliver of confidence she had left from earlier only to say it'd been easily the worst since four days prior.

"We can do it on our own."

Her head shot up. Setsuna sat on the log next to her. Flecks of snow starkly clung to her hair like she had rolled around on the rags collecting over the dirt. She didn't shiver and neither were her cheeks reddened from the cold and Towa would have guessed she'd done exactly that hadn't she known better. Darting her eyes around to see if any reaction had come from Sesshomaru at those words, her shoulders fell when she realized he was nowhere around them. Explains the boldness of Setsuna's tongue, but she suspects that reason for that also had to do with her sake.

"Man… talk about useless."

At that, Setsuna did laugh, which took her completely by surprise.

"He could be hearing us."

"Ah, let him. Probably why he's not around anyways."

And laughter erupted from both of them that time, though there'd hardly been a joke. The first real laughter in four days and the reason had not even been for something funny or amusing, because Towa was sure that while she'd never admit it Setsuna wanted to cry as much as she did. Towa would bet she'd wanted to more than she did, but she'd never pry.

The deer had finally cooked enough and Towa had pulled it off the fire, split it between the two of them with enough to save, stashing the rest in her bag. She hesitated before fully storing it. "You think he'd want any? I haven't seen him eat anything."

"He'll get his own."

The answer was so blunt that Towa only nodded and put it away. Setsuna had been mad, then. She'd assumed that'd much when she'd finished off the hunt, and despite her sister's silent demeanor the one she'd taken after had been particularly telling. She cleared her throat and tucked her hands at her sides. "You have any idea where he went?"

"No."

Towa got up and brushed the snow off her legs. Setsuna's expression went from distaste to confusion. "I'm going to look for him."

"I'll go."

"One of us should stay and-"

"I'll go."

Towa blinked. "No."

"What?"

"I want to go."

At that Setsuna didn't protest beyond looking displeased, but shuffled her legs and took attentively to the fire. Wherever Sesshomaru was wasn't far off; Towa would make it safe.

* * *

The faded footsteps ditched across the snow were less than necessary to find him, but given she could Towa had opted to trail by them, idly stomping her own bootprints into the one's left by Sesshomaru. Few animals skittered, small hares hopping around the base of oak trees and squirrels jumping around the branches. There were birds. You'd be surprised by the lot of them, small, brindled and downy, stamping webbed bifurcates in the snow. Their numbers grew less as the hour went and they were soon replaced with a more malevolent hoot. The eyes in the trees grew in numbers, beady and yellow. Now and then she'd catch the sight of a tattered black wing flying in and out the branches, some lopsided.

She had wandered farther than what'd felt the distance Sesshomaru had been, and at some point she'd noted that if she could sense him then he also knew she was following him and she questioned if he moved further intentionally. A sick joke. Evening pulled closer and the first few stars poked the sky and a great fire had taken on the horizon, the sun elliptic and descending into blood reefs. A twig snapped loudly beneath her and she jolted, letting out a sound of frustration. Bit her tongue. Just how much longer until she'd lose the grip on her frustration. She clenched her jaw and took in a deep breath.

Her head snapped at the sight of something green lighting up at the corner of her left eye and found something writhing at the floor of a familiar boot, dissipating before she truly processed what had happened. Towering over it was Sesshomaru, who's attention was not on Towa but behind her. She had taken it as a hint, though Sesshomaru had considered it no such thing and had his sword arm outstretched, and whipped around fast enough to draw her sword down on the hand of a demon inches from her face. It stumbled back with an agonizing cry that sent a flock migrating from the trees and slammers it shoulder against the bark. The demon composed itself quickly having just lost a hand and charged forwards again and Towa had to stumble out it's path. For a thing that looked starved to have it's ribs poking with prominence and with skin motley from decay it pushed passed with absurd force that even though it missed her Towa almost fell back and had a second less to stop her feet from slipping before a blue flash of sword ripped through it's middle and at the same time another through its neck.

The demon fell. The collapsing onto its knees felt too slow, the head crashing in the snow rolling a few times over and then disappeared in a wealth of green smoke. The body eventually did too. Towa was panting, winded by surprise rather than exertion. The headless body limp at her feet was difficult to stomach with the deer from earlier. She'd be damned if she let herself fall sick now, though.

"You were thrown off balance too easily."

"...what?"

"Your balance. And that demon should not have been able to sneak up on you."

 _Great_. She'd placed both hands on her knees to catch her breath and as she straightened up Setsuna broke through the trees with her naginata in hand, her gaze darting from Towa to Sesshomaru, Towa to Sesshomaru before finally resting on Towa.

"I smelled a demon's blood."

"It's not mine."

"I know it isn't."

Towa waved her off. "Two demon's showed up, we took care of it."

Setsuna looked over at Sesshomaru again, eyed him from head to toe. He seemed to be observing them and had yet to take off as he usually would. She decided not to think much of it.

"We should head back then."

"Yeah."


	2. North

The next few days passed uneventfully. If there were more demons in the woods they didn't stray from their abodes. Towa found it odd. The last two had found her quickly and clambered to dismantle her and at some point she noticed Sesshomaru had not been the target even after he'd shown up and neither did he make haste to stray far from them again. She didn't want to ponder what that implied but discomfort crept from her shoulders and she'd shuffle to shrug it back off. That also meant she and Setsuna had fewer moments to themselves and that left them both on edge. They would eventually ease up enough to whisper among themselves despite his presence and he never seemed interested or to be paying attention to what she said.

one afternoon, to test her luck she whispered not so discreetly, "Why's that furry thing on his shoulder so big?" and Setsuna met her with confusion at first, seeing she also had a mokomoko- but realization was quick on her and she returned with, "I don't know, but it looks impractical."

Towa nodded eagerly, watching for any hint of a reaction ahead of them. It never came.

Several times she thought they were followed or that she'd caught a pair of red eyes blinking furtively from the shadows, or a reflection bouncing off something unknown, but found nothing. Hunting still proved to light up all her nerves and her brain whirred in the fog coughed up by a myriad short fuses and she was certain the unwelcome set of attention served to broaden her aim. She missed rabbits and squirrels which earned her a comment of pursuing targets too small for her. Setsuna often picked up her frustration and handled the bow with ease. It didn't help with appearance but the task was at least off her, but she'd rather be the one aiming if Setsuna was always the one finishing the animal off for her

That morning they had come across a stag that could last them a week. Even at the distance it sulked obliviously and almost blindingly for he was as white as the snow and gleaming with apricity off the clots of frost clinging to its hide and twinkling like a coat of diamonds they could tell that he would tower over them, his head coming up beneath their father's nose and antlers reaching far above his head and blending in the trees. Towa started forwards eagerly and Setsuna shot her a look she brushed off. The stag was too large for her to miss and she fumbled quickly to knock an arrow.

The stag reared when the arrow lodged in the trunk a few centimeters above his spine, the extent of its damage only scalping a few tufts of fur and it disappeared into the trees.

"Hand me your bow."

Towa jumped frozen from her surprised. Emotion yet to sink in. She processed the outstretched hand for the first time heeding the stripes that curled into his palm and how wolflike his nails were and swallowing dryly she handed the weapon. She's not sure what she had expected but it hadn't been for him to point forwards with his chin and give a simple, "follow it," but precisely when he did she was struck by her senses and what had happened and her face flushed red. She stuttered searching for words she's not sure quite what for. Justification or protest. He had just taken her bow like you take a toy from a child who doesn't know how to use it. His expression unreadable and that was worse than his stoicism and he was as immovable as he was patient. Towa swallowed her embarrassment and pushed to her feet.

The task proved tedious and more daunting than she had thought it'd be, and she had not underestimated it in her assumptions. She led the two, Sesshomaru a short distance behind her right shoulder and Setsuna further after him. They followed the stag by hoof and scent. Towa often ducked in and out of branches and Sesshomaru tread through them with ease. She could occasionally hear a disgruntled sound from Setsuna but her desire to end the situation with the deer beat out her sympathy.

She stopped and ducked behind the walls of a stone bridge rent with ruin. Large holes gaped in the stone like a marmoreal beast had chewed along it and patches of weathered green clung to the striated sediment prickling her fingertips. The stag was several yards ahead, the distance if you lined up three of those bridges together but well within sight trodding the side of the river . "There."

Sesshomaru knelt beside her if only to not risk wasting her efforts, observing the scene with his arm draped on a knee. At some point he had strung the bow onhis shoulder, almost swallowed by the mokomoko. "Can you reach it from here?"

Towa paused. "No."

He nods.

She leads them again. Not heading straight for the stag she crosses the bridge into the woods, using the hospice of trees. The job was better during late spring and summer to early autumn when the woods sprung with plant life to hide within. Winter made the landscape moth - bitten with too many holes for her head to poke from but it had it's own beauty. Rags of snow fanning blades of light of a particular gold hue that lacked any warmth and could only be found at the eighth hour of a december morning. The animals that stayed the season were born of it. White rabbits flashing at the corner of their eyes, the mottled sparrows curiously twitching their heads. A few last wolves skulked the landscape, darkness implacable prowling the snow. They hardly showed their faces. Foxes were easier to find, usually just a streak of red disappearing into ungainly dens.

She crouches in a defoliated shrub. Dry and rustling with her every move. The stag's head was bent into the snow, chewing on a tuft of dead weeds. When she turned to ask for the bow she found it already waited for her dangling by the palm of a striped hand. She took it, nocked an arrow and-

"Do not fire unless your aim is certain."

There was a sternness in his voice neither of the twins had heard yet. Towa notes that he hadn't shown any annoyance or anger at her mishap earlier, and neither were those two emotions in his voice now, but a sternness rooted in something she couldn't pinpoint. With a nod she turned to the stag and pulled the bowstring to her ear.

For a long moment, none of them moved. They appeared like statues that had always stood there and witnessed the forest age and twist around them. Sesshomaru with his eyes focused on the deer, Towa at the pulse of its neck, and Setsuna on Towa's movements.

And then, finally, her hand snapped open.

The arrow spun with lethal accuracy, whistling through the dead silent air until spindling with a wet _THUD_ through the stag's throat. The sound was tacky and cloying. A second of stillness passed and the stag fell on its side stomping up pebbles of ice. Towa stood so fast she almost toppled herself and rushed to the animal who shivered with finality and she reached it just to see its half lidded eyes glaze over. It looked directly at her with its last breath then at something in the distance.

She felt sick.

Setsuna had been the first by her, climbing over a fallen trunk and pacing to her side. Initially when a hand steadied her shoulder she hadn't recognized whose it was and then almost scoffed at her own idiocy. Who else's would it be? She let out a shaky breath. That was right. There was no one else's to be there. She didn't look at her sister but she squeezed her hand and had turned to look away from the dead stag.

Sesshomaru loomed over the animal and observed it like a true omen of death. Neither virtuous nor malevolent but a thing wrought of purgatories. The girl had rushed to announce its demise for its eye trembled lightly and with what strength it had he met the demon's gaze. He understood. In what was a solemn act of mercy he pulled the arrow from the stag's neck in a fluid motion. The blood stain bloomed again in the snow in an odd roselike shape and Sesshomaru wiped the arrow on a blade of weed and stepped forward to offer its return to its proprietor.

For a moment she looked as if she did not know what to do with it, eyes gaping with a hue not too unsimilar from the flower on the ground. A striking semblance to another. She rubbed an eye. Clamped her mouth shut and took the arrow, putting it back in its quiver. Setsuna watched everything cautiously.

He knew sufficient to know that level of care and caution was usually the other way around. Towa had prided herself on being mere minutes older and taken over the other protectively. Their strengths were different. Setsuna's was not protectiveness but a silent comfort. And she who bore the greatest resemblance to him he knew would want little more to do with him and would never call him by anything but his name.

It was something he had long come to accept and that whatever sentiment he held towards her were his own.

While the two were gathering their bearings he had returned to the stag and hoisted it on his shoulder. His left sleeve blew emptily past his shoulder as he silently fixed his pace again, climbing up the river. The girls fell into step behind him shortly after, and for a while they continued in absolute silence.

Three hours had gone when they sat under a canopy of boughs. Thin wiry branches emaciated in starvation breaking against tougher wood and falling down on their heads. The forest ever changing with noon's approach. Honey streaks seeping through the webwork lit curtains around them in which they moved to and fro and it shifted not with their motions but the murmurs of wind and the trees communed and spoke among themselves in a tongue full of ancient wonder. When they'd found a small clearing Sesshomaru set down the stag and then vanished 'yon a white pendant. The girls took the cue and got to work skinning the stag.

"Sit this one out. I can handle it."

Towa blinked at her. Clenched her jaw. "No, I'm helping."

"You're still shaken up."

"Setsuna."

She paused and looked up at her sister. Her expression was one she hadn't worn often and she decided not to push the matter.

"Where do you think he wanders of to?"

"You don't know?"

Towa shook her head, working her knife down the stag's pelt. The fur was heavy and she pondered if it was worth using. "I thought I was the one who'd found him, but it was more like he'd found me. I didn't notice until after a demon jumped on me. He'd already killed one that was coming for me."

"I see."

The sound of oak scratching on barks permeates between them. "I think he meant for it to happen."

Setsuna froze in her actions. "Explain."

Towa wiped her hands on the stag's pelt and tipped her weight on her heels. "Why did you come after me?"

"You were taking too long."

"Did it ever feel like he was moving away?"

She shook her head. It had been what raised her suspicions about her sister being out there- but she had wanted to assume she'd found him and hung around.

"He didn't mean for me to get hurt. But I'm sure he was somewhere he could see me and I couldn't see him."

"He used you as bait."

"No!"

The burst shook both of them and they stared blankly at one another. Suddenly Towa's cheeks burned and she quickly stumbled to recover herself, "I-I mean, I don't think that. Why the hell would he do that?"

Setsuna shrugged and set her hands to work on the stag. Towa's hands had become too shaky for her to do the same.

"We know nothing about him."

Towa nodded.

Setsuna finished the stag on her own. Towa helped her with the fire and while they skewered the meat they worked on cleaning the pelt and folding it. They'd agreed it might come in handy but not certain as for what.

When Sesshomaru returned they were still eating a portion of the stag so he went and sat at below a tree away from the cocoon of the fire they sat by. Setsuna was as adept at pretending he wasn't there as he was with them and continued into her lunch and Towa tried to do same and caught herself peeking over her food to the man frequently enough to earn a side eye from her sister. Towa sighed and straightened up.

"You want some?"

Crickets.

"Hey!"

Four ticks. His chest rose prominently and he finally turned a glare at her. She had a hand of meat stretched out at him. "Want some?"

He huffed and leaned his head on the tree, shutting his eyes. "I'm fine. No thank you."

Towa frowned, losing virtue. She couldn't remember wanting to throttle someone quite as much. "I'm trying to be nice. You haven't had anything to eat since we got here."

"I said no thank you. Do not insist."

"Is that where you wander all the time? To find something to eat? Or do you not have to?"

"Precisely."

Towa halted. "To which?"

"Both."

Frustration bested her and crawled from her throat. Setsuna made no attempt to stop her from throwing the meat at him, biting into her portion as she watched the descent. Sesshomaru easily swat it in the fire.

"Asshole…"

That earned a side eye, but nothing more.

Towa didn't take long to calm down. The altercation did leave the food with a foul taste. More specifically with hardly a taste at all. Setsuna kept a glare fixed on Sesshomaru.

Packing their things they return to the river and continue north until it breaks into a cataract. Stopping at the sight the girls stared in awe. The water glittered with the ice packed escarpment that reverberated with a ferocity the roar from the waterfall and caused ground where they stood to quake beneath them. Perpetually restless. The wind whipped with consistency and the trees bowed with reverence and it appeared that all things avoided nearing the cliff beyond the point their feet had stopped. Sesshomaru traipsed the entirety of the river to the rock wall ignoring an assault of ice shavings stinging off his cheek and tipped his nose up. That was the first since following him they realized they had not been wandering senselessly.

He returns and they cut in the copse. The bareness of winter had become starker by the previous sight and there were much fewer animals so close to the waterfall and the clouds had swallowed the sun so there was not even light by which the snow might reflect and the woods appeared to be wrought of a world lost beneath blankets of ash. They come across old demon ruins whose architecture is so worn and burdened they give no semblance of eon or age only that they were older than their father and likely older than the lineage of their forebears. Vindications of a primitive age. A scream that I had been here, I exist, in a language long forgotten.

He had slowed for them to explore the ruins. Something Towa had been more enthusiastic about than Setsuna. She'd point and ask questions, none of which Sesshomaru had answers to. A few he'd tilt his curiously at, examining what she drew attention to and wondering for himself and she'd look hopeful for a response and he'd simply move on.

The sun still hangs when they depart from the ruin but reefs have begun to faintly mottle the horizon. There were still three, maybe four hours left for the sky to fully blacken. They spend those hours climbing the precipice until they find a shallow cave to camp for the night. To both Towa's and Setsuna's surprise, Sesshomaru doesn't disappear long and returns before they've settled down. He tosses a short stack of wood by the wall of the caves and sits by the entrance and does not move for the rest of the night.

They resume the rest of the trek almost immediately the next morning. Neither of the girls commented but water dripped and sang somewhere from a flue of the flowstone walls of the cave and that said the fire had kept burning throughout the night and was burning still. Sesshomaru had not moved from his spot nor did give a faint good morning but he watched the spinning dais of the earth from the drop at the mouth of the cave as he waited for them to get some food in their mouths and push towards the day.

They scruff the top of the cliff before noon thinks to crawl in. The sun sat pale and clouds dust the horizon but otherwise the sky was bare and circumspect. The river opaquely blue and serpentine and the forest gnawing and widening until the trees dropped from the hem of a waking world. The girls slow to a halt. Allow the locomotive of nature to carry the rest of the way and hold their breath at the sight in front of them, taking in the labyrinth of evergreens they had pilgrimed the last seven days. Where the ruins had provided a sense of wonder to Towa, Setsuna cannot hide how the edge of the cliff bequeaths its own on her or the comfort she takes in the upwards draft she breathes in and fills her chest with.

"Woah."

Towa ran up to the ledge, dizzied herself on the hollowed air and had to steady herself by grasping the nearest branch. Or what she thought had been one had actually reached and held her shoulder and she latched to his forearm. She stared up surprised and Sesshomaru shifted his eyes back to the scene ahead, easing his grip on her shoulder and retiring his hand when he was certain she wouldn't plunge headlong to undo their hike from the prior day.

Setsuna had crept besides her. Seeing her sister Towa relaxed and pointed, "That clearing's where our house is."

"Long way, huh."

Sesshomaru held in the sight for another pause and then withdrew himself from the side of the cliff, giving the two space to whisper among themselves. He stood and idly tapped his nails on tenseiga's hilt.

When they rejoined him they squeezed through a leeway of rocks and found themselves in another thicket, supernaturally grey like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimmed it away. The fog thick with ghosts raking through dry brushes and vipers slithered discreetly within the tin shrubs. The walk is thankfully short and they're met with another clearing when Sesshomaru lifts a tumbled boulder that they duck beneath. The path leads to a deceivingly stable looking rope bridge, a few wilted vines coiled like serpents around the railings. The scent of rot and mold is faint but they creep from under the wooden planks. Sesshomaru's eyes narrow, searching for another manner to cross the clearing. He could jump to the opposite cliff with them but he hardly imagines they'd appreciate the action.

A tuft of silver flashes from the edge of his periphery and he only has the chance to fit in a simple "towa" before she's skipped halfway through the bridge, freezing and meeting his gaze.

Exactly a second after, the plank she stood on gave an inhumane shrill and collapsed.

Everything succeeding was a blur: he and Setsuna lunged forwards, splitting several planks in the process and Setsuna realized she had made a mistake.


	3. Misgivings

She'd made a mistake. It'd taken seconds as they'd stepped beyond the phantom woods to the dirt pathway leading to the rope bridge cutting on another platform of land and then twisting upwards. Something suffocating clung to the thicket they'd traipsed. Couldn't put a name to it. The scuff of her neck stiffened and she's sure it felt worse on Towa.

The walk was dull and anomalously silent. What sound there was came from brindled twigs split by their feet and they reverberated through the fog with an ardency you might think they lay trapped in a bay of pseudomorphic shelves by which the sound could scale and bounce like lepper the entirety of its escape upwards. She waited for something to flag the quietude, a mouth in the chthonic gray or the boat of Charon and it never came. They pushed past a boulder and found the sun had ducked towards noon and glistened warmly against the stone barrier they'd departed.

Fair to say relief had bestowed them with a boldness and wanting to distance herself from the air of the dingy woods Towa set in the direction she presumed they were headed, kicking past the short dirt road to the rope bridge festooned with wilted ivy and overripe muscadine. Setsuna didn't think much of it at first and hindered her pace only because she had noticed Sesshomaru had hesitated to scan the surroundings. Towa side stepped him and his attention turned to her immediately and he'd spoken her name and up to that no concern occupied his tone or voice. Not as the plank she stood on snapped and with a yelp she barreled through the rift and he leapt in after her.

Not until he realized Setsuna had too, and for no more than a second as he registered the situation she saw more gold in his eyes than at any moment before because they had so furiously widened.

And then it was gone, he'd clenched his jaw and shoved her in an attempt to get her on the cliff and if not for the force of wind and gravity that labored his movements he might have proved successful.

It was not entirely fruitless. Struck by an identical plan and seemingly both aware, Sesshomaru turned to Towa and using the advantage the push had given her Setsuna rammed her naginata in the escarpment and blundering down an artillery of rocks she skid to a precarious stop. Sesshomaru caught up to Towa and pulled her into the crook of his arm and then using his weight to turn Setsuna took the cue and jumped.

As soon as he had hold of her wrist he yanked both girls firmly against his chest and they barreled to the ground below.

The brunt of the impact hit Sesshomaru's back. The limestone floor hitched and cracked into a crater and a speared cleft jammed into his right shoulder, earning a sharp inhale. Towa was left winded with an ache between her ribs and Setsuna had taken the least damage with the grievances of a few sore muscles. She heaved and pushed herself to sit, hardly caring for the hand that remained pressed on cold armor and that she held herself up by. Towa lay sprawled over her father's chest and she budged with a painful grunt. Setsuna glanced at her. Her eyes were squeeze shut and brows drawn taut and wrinkles creased around all her features. No blood on her, no limbs jut at unnatural angles. She might have muttered a swear. If she had it'd been too muffed to hear.

When Towa opened her eyes they were gouged by the brightness of a far sky and she squeezed them shut. Counted to three. She blinked her eyes open and followed Setsuna's arm to the unreadable expression wrung on her head. With another grunt she tried to sit and found herself pinned by a hand fisted with the fabric of her shirt. She tried twisting to look at Sesshomaru and couldn't see more than his chin and the tip of his nose. He hadn't stirred an inch but consciousness had not left him. A cement arm said that much.

Defeated, she let her head roll on his shoulder and stared at a white sky.

Eventually his grip eased albeit slowly. She waited for him to release her shirt entirely before she sat up. His hand dropped from her and he used it to prop himself.

Setsuna's expression explained itself. A wave of sickness and dizziness washed over Towa and she couldn't tell if the cause was the sight waiting for them or if the effects of the fall still had a hold on her or both. Sesshomaru had his back to the scene but already knew what waited.

The basin curled into another precipice and up to the ledge crowded demons stock still. They looked like statues. A thick layer of ash and dust that clung to them so long it hardened into a carapace resembling granite. Some paralyzed mid - motion, emaciated limbs and wrist bones reaching for something, rusty eyes glaring at something. Towa rose unsteadily, not daring to stray further than her father's shoulder, and whispered, "Are they dead?"

He and Setsuna stood, the answer teetering their balance, and surveyed the scene once more. Bakusaiga's blade winked, removed from its sheath. With her naginata stretched in front of her Setsuna tiptoed to the demons. Made it to their fenceline. Nothing. Shouldn't be right. She leaned into the space of one with a reaching arm, dangerously close to inspect its face, and that's when an inhuman shrill tore from the center of the mass.

Setsuna backpeddled. Her heart pound in her ears and Towa almost clamped her palms down on her own instead of drawing her sword. Blood curdling. The demon's hand shot above the crowd madly clawing for the sky like it could drag the sky by its nails and eat it and when it failed its hand slammed down on the head of its stone kin and it clambered over them and myriad others erupt in a storm of magma and rock. They belched with a murderous locomotive and they screamed and tore into each other with talon and teeth and it was as if the whole scene decocted from the lobes of hell.

A demon stumbled from Setsuna's hand with a festering wound and with a sweep a flash of green sent flying a barrage of others. Towa had drawn her sword and kicked at a foe and the glowing blade descended on their necks. Enemies pulled from every direction and swarmed a barrier between them so what indication of each other's presence they had came from their attacks and the sound of enemies thrown.

Towa's knees buckled. Any coherent shout they sent each other drowned by the chaos but the hoard's cacophony split with an unmistakable scream and fear welled in her throat. She thought it'd burst.

_"MOVE."_

Without registering the word she instinctively ducked and a whip of gold light lashed through a cluster of enemies. In the new clearing Setsuna hung by the neck from the hand of a snarling demon and Towa charged and ran her sword from its head to the pit of its torso and Setsuna dropped in a succession of coughs. No time to sit and recover. Picking up the fallen naginata she forced herself to stand. Everything spun and blue sparked the edges of her vision as Towa struck with her sword and thunder shook the crevasse.

Unable to keep on her feet, Setsuna saw everything as she fell at the mercy of the figures to each side of her. At her left a dragon cleaved from Towa's sword and snivelled its head with a roar and burst with such an explosive force that only the shadows of the demons charging at them charred into the ground. At the same time to her right their father had cut a single but powerful arc with his sword that blasted with amorphic energy. That line of foe vanquished without a trace and those who weren't caught by the fulmination writhed in the wake of what followed. Screams pitched higher. Infectious green static ripping into them and some scurried to escape its path to no avail. The light dissipated when there was no life left that it could decay.

"Are you alright?"

Towa's voice peeled her from her affliction. She had recovered enough to go from desperately pleading for breath to holding one in and with her eyes firm on the bit of his face she could see Setsuna asked, "Why not earlier?"

A pause.

"You would not have been spared."

Setsuna swallowed dryly.

Towa had wandered shortly away, recovering her own labored breath and scanning the scene. Her face twisted with agony. "God, _I'm such and idiot-_ "

"That is enough." Both girls jumped and fixed their attention on him. He kept his back to them, sheathing his sword. "If possible, stay behind me when we are in a fight."

Setsuna angrily bit the question of whether or not he concerned at all for them or if his displays were wrought solely out of obligation.

If Setsuna intended on asking, Towa thwarted the opportunity. Sesshomaru slowly prowled the area and she paced at his heels. "So what are we going to do now?"

He stopped by the wall they'd fallen from and tilted his head back.

"Can't you fly?"

"We find a way up."

Towa paused. Sesshomaru resumed walking and Setsuna finally pushed herself onto her feet as Towa paced by Sesshomaru. "Are you hurt?"

No reply.

"Hey-"

"That is not of your concern. Can you see that over there?"

They stopped by the second cliff previously blocked by the hoard. Towa shook her head. "Too dark."

She's not sure if she saw the corner of his lips tug down but suspicion faltered her esteem. She caught up to him again and maintained her pace. "Can you fly?" her previous question repeats.

Another pause. "Yes."

She doesn't pry further.

He walked to the second cliff and motioned his head for them to follow him. Once they were both beside him skipped from the ledge. Towa shouted in surprise.

"Jump."

Towa looked to Setsuna. His voice echoed close despite the darkness he disappeared into, so with a glance and shrug at Towa she followed.

The simple demand proved equally deceptive and they met the ground immediately as the idea he'd sent them plummeting headlong towards death sprung in her head, stumbling and latching onto each other to not topple. The landing raised a cloud of dust to their noses and a coughing fit. The hacking waned and they were greeted by a warm bloom of light. A torch. Towa quickly accepted and waved fire around mottled stones. Old writing carved in the walls, wooden crates and broken vases littering the floors. Is this what he asked if she could see? His gaze seemed to be across the cliff's opening. No, something else. "I thought we were going up?"

Crickets.

"Won't that take longer than if you got some rest? I'd bet you could jump there."

Setsuna gave her a questioning stare. They started behind him and Towa trailed so that his silhouette was just inside the torch's sphere. "He's worse than he's letting on. That fall was steep enough to kill even daiyoukai."

"I don't care." Towa looked surprised. "And how would you know? How many daiyoukai have you met? I barely know one."

"They're strong. Not immortal. After all mother said grandfather died in a fight."

"Okay. Even if he is injured, there's nothing we can do."

That she's right about.

"What was that during the fight?"

Towa stopped, surprised. "What do you mean?"

Setsuna won't repeat herself. She starts walking quietly. "I don't know."

"You don't know."

"I don't know."

They find daylight. Tauntingly hung above their heads as they weave in and out of tunnels and rooms. Still early noon. Towa quickly discovers unlike the ruins of the previous day there's nothing interesting to be found there. An abandoned mine exploited until no longer prolific and then had left with a human affinity for decay. Some tunnels were bogged with humidity. Others clogged with clay and soot hadn't met with fresh air since the last person to tread there. At one point the torch revealed a fully membered skeleton. She thought she imagined Sesshomaru hesitating before they'd entered that tunnel but that explains it. He didn't look concerned so she brushed it off and made nothing of it until several minutes passed and a putrid stench crawled into her senses. Were they headed towards it?

She counts the skeletons. At first they're far apart and minutes go by until another rolls past their feet. The smell of rot increases and so do the numbers and so do bodies. Not heaps of bones but bodies in all stages of decomposition. Some clinging with putrefying meat on an arm or a leg and others intact except for an arm or a leg. Hollow eye sockets and on others desiccated skin ebbed so tautly the eyeballs protruded from them and she thinks they could roll out. The further they tread the more there are and they pile on each other and some skid as they pass.

Next room they enter ends with a stone scaffold and beyond that scaffold an entryway with scattered trees and snow and a path. Dizzied by the unbearable smell her mind blanks and she blinks confused when she's blocked by an arm. She pinches her nose and frowns at Sesshomaru. There's a jostle. Wood splintering and falling. The joints of Setsuna's fingers white around her naginata.

"Demons."

" _Half_ demons."

Her head whips. A man slithered from under the scaffold and the other rose from behind the short wall above. Humans. No. Putrescence spilled copiously from them like they had emerged from the wealth of corpses in the tunnels having lay beneath them for a week and they looked as if they had not moved from there either. A number more emerged and they skulked to and fro in front of them. Predator and prey.

"Those furs look warm, you wouldn't mind sharing them."

"Winter's gonna be tough this year. Early snow."

"They've got plenty."

"I like the girls' eyes. And the hair... _'Mm_ agine them on a brace-"

Towa watched the gold of his eyes darken and the whites bleed to red and then everything blurred. Her mouth hung open and her stomach threatened to leap from her tongue. If she believed the smell couldn't get any worse the slew of fresh blood did exactly that and the room careened. She desperately searched for a point to hold her focus. She heard a thud and a metallic clang and nearly tripped onto her chin as she turned. Setsuna. Her face was pale. Three black stripes smiled malevolently on her throat. For an eternity she swayed and then sank to her knees and Towa nearly crashed forwards suppressing a scream.

She skid to a sudden halt still distance from them. Sesshomaru slowly took a knee in front of Setsuna. Towa wanted to push him away. She wanted to yell the fault was his. He must have known. How had he led them there. He knew. _He knew he knew._

Sesshomaru had gently lifted Setsuna's chin and slid his hand along the side of her neck. He wiped the blood with his thumb. There weren't gashes on her skin. Not her blood.

Towa collapsed. Sickness and guilt.

Sesshomaru's attention didn't waver from Setsuna. He rested his hand on her shoulder and when she allowed her head to fall he gave it a light squeeze. She didn't move. He gently shook her. Nothing. He shook her again and this time only stopped when she looked at him.

"He tried to kill you."

Setsuna's eyes went to the man sprawled a few feet behind him and he gently shook her again. "He was human."

"Humans wage war and kill each other everyday in this country. He was your enemy."

For the first time she truly looked him in the eye and held his gaze. A color neither she or her sister had inherited nor did they share the marks on his face. Towa had at least gotten his hair. Her mother had said over and over how she bore a resemblance to him. Finally close to him she couldn't find any.

She nodded.

"Towa."

Setsuna turned to see her sister sitting on the floor. She couldn't find bruises or cuts on her but she noted how she stood unsteadily. "Can we leave?"

Sesshomaru rose. He waited for Setsuna to get on her feet and they headed for the exit on the scaffold.


	4. New Moon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Would like to say thank you to those who have read my work to this point and left kudos.  
> Without further ado

For another two hours they follow the dirt path with their thoughts and footsteps to occupy the silence. The siblings keep their heads hung for the majority of that time. Where the rare sputter of foal and small animals entertained them in their previous walks they served no such purpose now. In fact the curious poke of a stag's head from a perfect frame of birch trees went entirely unnoticed and the boldness of the serrow that skipped alongside them before pivoting into the woods irritated them more than amused and perhaps their ire prompted its departure. Though they had not seen many people in their lives they were not so eager to come across more so soon and it was to both their dismay when a voice of delinquency ebbed their silence.

They were distant enough that the offender stood obfuscated by a pale winter haze but there was no denying the vehement red spot at the center of an ochre bridge they headed for. This one was supported with rope but the ossature of the structure was mainly one of wood and that a figure stood garishly yapping atop it meant it was likely sound but Towa's posture shrunk and to her surprise Sesshomaru said something about that being unbecoming. His exact words were missed as she realized he had spoken precisely as he'd stopped, but she instinctively straightened and she could see Setsuna do similar from the corner of her vision.

Hoping that when they reached the bridge the blunderous person would have offed on his way, he had only grown larger and soon they learned there was not one but two persons on the bridge. That meant the squabbling man was only half - mad for he hadn't been squabbling to himself. His company appeared little older than them and to be the root of his havoc. An impractically heavy looking sword beamed from the nest in his shoulder and as they approached they watched his free hand descend on the other boy's head.

"I said let go of me, you brat! The hell's wrong with you?"

"I said we're going to wait util miroku gets here!"

"I didn't take you to be such a cowar-" He cut with a surprised yelp and abruptly fell out of their sights.

Sesshomaru stopped at the foot of the bridge and they watched the man from behind him. He tugged furiously at a statue pinning his hand and a rusty sword lay scattered at his side. The other kid's arms crossed over his chest and he observed the string of curses aimed at him with an irritated green stare. The strange man's reaction ceased and his nose twitched and a pointy ear flicked atop his head. His anger dissipated into disbelief and he nearly dislocated his arm with an attempt to stand up, whipping his head to look at Sesshomaru.

"Holy shit."

"Inuyasha."

"You _reek_."

A fist mechanically collided with his face and the girls stared in shock. Inuyasha fell on his ass with a painful grunt. _"Still a fuckin' asshole."_ He spat a mouthful of blood. "Nice to see you too, **_jackass_**. I've been great, thanks for asking."

"Your confidence given your current predicament is almost endearing, Inuyasha."

"Oh, shut the hell up!"

Suddenly, the rusty sword flashed at his ankles and he jumped back.

"I hope you know I meant it when I said you reek. What hell did you crawl out of?"

Behind Sesshomaru Towa cleared her throat. Inuyasha's eyes widened as if he had just noticed her and she almost staggered at the familiarity of his features. Something ticked under his expression and as she went to speak he interrupted with another, _"Holy shit…"_ softer than the one he had thrown at Sesshomaru. He sent an incredulous look at his companion and waved his hand and without argument he removed the odd statue and Inuyasha shot up with a velocity that almost sent him over the bridge. "They're your brats."

Towa made to snap something but the third demon raised a hand. "Don't take it personally."

Setsuna scoffed.

"So you three know each other?"

Sesshomaru cut in, "Hardly."

There was a pause to collect his bearings and then a toothy grin from Inuyasha. "I feel for you, kid. Seriously. Jerk face here's my big brother."

"You're brothers?"

"Half - brothers. Shit, I'm having a stroke just thinking about dealing with him any more than I have to."

"Is that so?" Setsuna asked.

"Bastard's got a sick way of telling me he loves me, I'll tell you that."

"Inuyasha."

"Hey, loosen up." Inuyasha tapped his knuckles against Sesshomaru's chest. "What kind of brother doesn't stick his hand through your ribcage every once in a while?"

" **Inuyasha** _._ "

"Sorry, sorry, what kind of _half-brother_ -"

"And I should take no issue in doing so again."

"Sheesh, see what I mean? Can't fuckin' imagine having to put up with him as a father."

"Wouldn't have to."

Inuyasha remembered to pick up his sword right then. It transformed into the sword they'd seen from afar and he lugged it on his shoulder. His gaze shifted from Setsuna to Sesshomaru to Setsuna. "Ha. You're funny, kid. I'm sure you didn't get that from your dad." She didn't say anything in turn and he gave Sesshomaru a look neither of the girls could read.

"Don't tell me you're a hard ass towards your kids."

Sesshomaru said nothing but his eyes didn't leave him.

Inuyasha took a sharp breath, incredibly loud in the awkward silence that infected the atmosphere. They'd forgotten about the third demon when he broke through it.

"Uh… Sesshomaru, don't take this the wrong way, but you guys really do stink. Where are you coming from?"

"That's not of your concern."

"Actually-"

"We were ambushed."

They all turned to Setsuna. She could be imagining it but while Sesshomaru's expression barely moved there were hints of anger.

"How the hell do you get ambushed?"

"It was my fault, actually," Towa said. "I rushed ahead and a bridge broke under me, Setsuna and… he jumped to save me."

"Interesting. Doesn't explain how you were ambushed."

"We found a way back up through an old mine-"

"Couldn't fly up?"

"No."

_"Bastard-"_

Towa paced forward and stood between them. "One of the tunnels were filled with corpses, we were too far in at that point. Only way around was going back, so…"

"They were humans and I was unconcerned." Sesshomaru said bluntly. "If you so desperately seek to wound your ego beyond your previous display turn and find another way to do it."

"I'm gonna fuckin' kill him."

The third demon sent him a glare. "How do you know that's where we're headed?"

Sesshomaru didn't respond.

"Shippo, go find Miroku. I'm tired of this. One of you brats tell your mom Rin said hi and misses her. Can't trust this bastard to-"

The girls had stiffened. Towa stared at her shoes and Setsuna turned her head to watch the breeze shave thin layers of topsnow and howl a transitory fenceline east. Inuyasha worried that if he reached out and touched them any amount of force would split them clean like marble and he worried so that he would not catch how the murderous intent calcified in his brother's eyes did so with an ardency it had not in a generation and he did not catch how it softened.

"Mind. Your. Tongue."

Shippo scampered away in search of the monk. Inuyasha dumbfounded until Sesshomaru began to push past him and with an intensity he didn't recall mustering he went, "Come to the village with us."

"For your own sake Inuyasha, I suggest-"  
"Sesshomaru. Just for tonight." The demon's expression blanked and he added with hostility, "If something happens, that's gonna be on _your_ conscience."

The bridge teeters with a strong gust of wind and Towa hugs the rail and it does not stop until a precarious truce is unspokenly agreed upon by the two. They wait for Shippo and he returns with Miroku who easily smiles and feigns to know naught and sense naught. They chat among themselves and exchange glances towards the twins and ask them their names as if they didn't already know and the twins pretend that they believe they don't and they slip into conversations about the village and the kids their age that live there and they tell stories of their journeys and of each other and take solace in that ersatz amiability as if they'd known each other their whole lives. Neither Sesshomaru nor Inuyasha speak at first but they go on and Inuyasha's toothy grin triumphs from his tension and he finds his own stories to boast and a warm natured brawl breaks tousling him and Shippo as the sun descends beneath the skyline of trees and the horizon ignites into a fiery blood reef and the girls give a few short hearty laughs that they had not heard in over week. They're not sure when Sesshomaru disappears but of the levity it offers and they hush with common guilt. The evening ferries the village out of a great fire teeming with people murenging the last chores of the day and their voices excavate from whispers.

Stars fall in monastic arcs from the sky and he searches for holes in the heavens. A breath from the intestate earth or a toll in that tenantless night. He looks for a word in a tongue he does not know and he thinks he finds it spoken by the wind and by the cold hands tangled in his hair and combing from his scalp and he looks for more but there's naught to be found.

A different Inuyasha emerges from the dais of the village and in that dark and moonless night he looks as if he walks in a glowing orchard among the stars and not beneath them. Electric blue in wild black hair hugging a sheathed sword to chest. He squints as he nears the shadowy reign of the woods that bear his name and they look so much like the fifty years stolen from him and hesitation lacquers his nearing steps. His nose scrunches. Bark and snow. Vestiges of cloying vegetation and creatures.

"Courage and stupidity are not to be mixed."

Inuyasha jumps. Almost draws his sword. His brother's idea of a joke. He scans every corner he can see with no sign of the silver ghost that'd spoken the words and his heart thrashes irrationally in his throat. "You're a sick fuckin' bastard, you know that?"

"Hm."

Inuyasha starts whacking at trunks and what branches he can reach with tessaiga's sheath. "At least keep talking, you jackass."

"If you insist on rushing headlong towards your death do not ask me to assist you in escaping it."

He said nothing more than that but it sufficed. Inuyasha's sheath thwacked a steely boot. A few dry sprigs snapped from the bough and he moved up a bit hitting his leg and Sesshomaru's silhouette in the tree became much clearer after that. Still feigning naivete he continued forwards to his shoulder, the dumb looking scarf and-

Sesshomaru's hand clamped around tessaiga's sheath as it neared his face and he secured it for a moment then released it. He made no comment but Inuyasha's grin did not go unnoticed.

"Brooding in a tree's my thing."

"Yes."

"You jerk- that's my tree, ain't it. Fuck off. "

"I was unaware you bear such an attachment to a tree."

"I don't- it's cause it's you that's in it."

"It's quite comfortable."

"Don't go gettin' any ideas, you try and take that tree and see how that fight ends for you."

"Is that a threat or a promise, Inuyasha?"

" _Oi._ " Inuyasha's tone sounded a lot more irritated. "At least fuckin' help me up."

Sesshomaru held out his arm and Inuyasha grasped his bicep and using the tree's bole he kicks himself most of the way up. Sesshomaru only supported him and picked up where he no longer could.

"You planning on kicking me off? Scoot over."

Sesshomaru drew his legs closer and Inuyasha made himself comfortable on the branch. A stark contrast from over fifteen years ago. It was a surprise to say he'd need both his hands to count the number of times they'd done something like this. He wouldn't have imagined it even after killing Naraku and they never did air their grievances. That ate more at Inuyasha than it did Sesshomaru and this they both knew. Same as they knew one day he'd crack by the weight of it and Sesshomaru would listen but neither were prepared for it yet and neither had a taste for things false but there are nights like this where they'll allow themselves to set aside old ambitions of bloodshed and pretend they've reached a future where such memories were buried by ones with semblance of camaraderie and the sun would come up and they'd part ways forgoing all memory of the night that went too.

Minutes passed in silence. "Did you know Towa's on the new moon too?"

"I had my suspicions earlier." Inuyasha raised a brow at that. "Setsuna's defense was much sharper than hers."

"Ah." Inuyasha leaned back. "You didn't go into detail about what'd happened."

"Best that way."

"Don't start coddling me, Sesshomaru."

"Was wondering where that temper from earlier had gone."

"Yeah? Thank Kagome, I was ready to go on a last minute suicide mission to bash your head in before the sun set."

"You told her."

"I did."

Sesshomaru seemed to weigh those words for a minute. "I'm not coddling you, Inuyasha."

It was his turn to pause. "That bad?"

Sesshomaru nodded and Inuyasha groaned, running a hand through his hair. "Those kids…"

"Setsuna killed one of them."

Inuyasha looked more displeased. "Brat said they were humans. Not fun the first time."

"It is the second?"

"We cared about her too, you know."

"I know."

They watched the stars. Constellations peeking from the gaps of a wooden net. "Dammit, Sesshomaru." He ran a hand through his hair again. More harshly. His fingers coiled to strands close to his scalp and he tugged and repeated the action before burying his face in his hands. "Just dammit."

Loss. He never learned how to deal with it. His mother. Kikyo. For a while even Kagome. He pondered that thought. Somehow he suspected his experience with bereavement might have been more than Sesshomaru's.

"How long's it been?"

"Over a week."

And yet his mask had hardly cracked. Inuyasha recognized what that was. He raised his head and his bangs slipped forward disheveled. His face dried but in those moments it seemed exhaustion had gripped him. His cheeks hollowed and the light in his eyes had gone and that looked wrong. Sesshomaru leaned his head on the bole.

"I'm sorry for you, Sesshomaru."

"You're disappointed."

"Yeah, I am."

Inuyasha's legs dangled from the tree and he absent mindedly watched them swing. "You ever stop to think someday it's just gonna be us? I mean, if I'm anything to go by you'll still have your kids." Sesshomaru raised a brow at him. "You meet many quarter-demons ?"

"Only the one."

He gave a laugh that sounded distraught. "Thought so. Can I ask you something? Don't look at me like that. I've only ever asked you for one favor and you said no. I haven't asked anything since…" He trailed off and then scoffed, shaking his head.

"Inuyasha." The half demon looked up. "Once. I can use tenseiga once."

Those words brought a relief he'd desperately sought. "You really ain't easy to talk to."

"Suppose I'm not."

Inuyasha lost the last bit of his control.

"Fuck you. .. _fuck_ you you're such a bull. You should've come here. You should've told us. You ever stop to think we'd wanna say goodbye too? You ever- you-" His knuckles had turned white around the branch. Splinters digging into frail skin. Pathetic. He bit down on his lip. He tried not to shake but his steadiness had already left him. "We didn't get to last time. And you're so fucking stubborn I've gotta wonder if you're really not as stupid as I am. You think we don't know what you're doing and you know maybe we don't and it's just a coincidence or maybe it just has to do with the fact that Rin's back at the village but I sure as hell know there's a reason I've raised my kid well while yours can't stand to look at you and all I can do is hope _there's a fucking good reason you've never asked us for help_ , Sesshomaru, and if that reason's just your fucking pride I don't ever wanna see your face again and you'd better stay away from those damn kids.

" **But her decision was her own.** And I- _fuck_." He choked and slammed the heel of his palm hard on the bough. By now he was visibly trembling and he slammed his hand down again and his fist paled. "I have to have faith that that meant something. And you better know that she was happy. I can't fucking imagine what she saw in you and sometimes I wondered if we were even talking about the same person but she was happy and if she had faith in you we've gotta have faith too _but dammit,_ i hope that it was worth it, Sesshomaru. For your sake and your brats' sake."

Sesshomaru waited for him to regain his composure. "You're mistaken."

"What?"

"Do not have faith in me because she did. Everything I've done is because I have faith in her."

Inuyasha's eyes widened like the gears began to click. His mouth opened and shut. No words came and so he nodded.

"I don't know what to do."

Sesshomaru stared at a point above his head. As if he hadn't spoken. Inuyasha looked down at his feet and hesitated before setting a hand on the knee his brother had curled to his chest. And then he sank completely so he was propped up entirely by his brother's leg. Neither were sure how much time had passed before the other moved but by the time morning came and Inuyasha's ears sat back on top his head he had dropped to the ground and staggered for his balance. Sesshomaru stayed in the tree with his eyes closed. He looked as if he was in a peaceful sleep and Inuyasha knew better than to believe that he was.


End file.
